"Fuzzy Faced Leader" <keithreed...[at]yahoo.com> wrote:

- quote -

What? Taxact is not more expensive, in fact it's free!
(except for the state version)
In fact, I would say the old adage "you get what you pay
for" is wrong for tax software, for 99% of taxpayers the
low-end packages do the exact same thing as the expensive
tax software packages. Unless you are a preparer doing
100's of returns, Turbotax seems to handle just about any
situation

<< ================================================== ===== > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ================================================== ===== >

xyzzy.dude[at]gmail.com wrote:

- quote -

The one that has always bothered me is the portion of
1099-DIV dividends that is free from state tax. Every
mutual fund I've ever had reports this as a percentage, but
TT always wants it as a dollar amount.

Almost any time you have to pull out a calculator while
using a tax program it's an indication that they left
something out.

--
Barry Margolin, barmar[at]alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***

<< ================================================== ===== > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ================================================== ===== >

xyzzy.d...[at]gmail.com wrote:

- quote -

The old adage "You get what you pay for" is especially true
with tax software. Thats why CPA's spend thousands for
accurate software packages. Try TaxAct. More expensive,
but less problems.

<< ================================================== ===== > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ================================================== ===== >

xyzzy.dude[at]gmail.com wrote:

- quote -

No offense intended, but I would wager that the time you
expended on these "annoyances" was less than that utilized
in composing your post.

<< ================================================== ===== > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ================================================== ===== >

Every year I seem to stumble upon a basic in inadequacy in
either TaxCut or TurboTax. By this I mean screens where
their programmers appeared to just throw up their arms and
say "ahh, to heck with it, just make the customer do it."
This year's examples (so far) are:

1. If I paid AMT last year, TaxCut can't or won't compute
what part of my state refund is taxable. See screen shot
at: http://tinyurl.com/ynpzod. In my opinion there is no
excuse for this screen -- I did both returns with TaxCut
last year and imported the data so it has all the data
necessary to do this computation, so why can't it compute
this for me?

2. When doing my state tax form, TaxCut required me to
manually enter IRA distributions received. Even though they
are already entered on my federal form and the state program
supposedly imports data from the federal forms.

This year I'm experiencing these annoyances with TaxCut.
But when I used to use Turbotax, it had just as many
annoyances. Why can't these programs do these basic
functions?

<< ================================================== ===== > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ================================================== ===== >